The Crime of Protection

by Gloria Martin

  He lets out a gasp of pain and his hands move away from me. I don’t waste any time. I run straight for the trees in front of me.

  It’s not long before I hear his pounding steps coming after me. I don’t look back. I keep running and don’t stop until I see a dock and a lake in the distance.

  My heart races as I continue to run towards the water. Even thinking that I am trapped doesn’t stop me.

  I run all the way across the wooden dock and dive into the water. It is freezing cold and I gasp as it hits my body. A moment later, I look back to see Jake running for the dock

  Immediately, I begin to swim as fast as I can towards the other side. It’s not fast enough.

  Jake dives in and before I know it, his hands are on me again. He grabs hold of my arm and suddenly, I’m under water.

  I feel my arms flailing. My mouth opens trying to gasp for air, filling with cold, rapid water. I feel Jake’s hand holding me down. I try to push against him, my body becoming weaker with every attempt.

  Soon, I feel my entire being shutting down. I struggle against the desire to close my eyes, the desire to go limp. I’m not sure how much longer I can hold out when I hear it.

  My ears catch the sound of a rifle shot, muffled by the flow of the water. Suddenly, I feel Jake’s hand move from my head. His hand around my shoulder goes limp.

  With the last ounce of strength I possess, I shove myself up to the surface where my lungs fight and gasp for the air they need.

  I feel my eyes opening my strength coming back to me. The first thing I see is Jake, face down in the water. The ripples beneath him have turned red with his blood and a bullet hole gushes from the back of his head.

  I look up to the dock to see Ben standing at the edge rifle in hand, still pointed at the spot where Jake once stood.

  Ben is here. I’m safe.

  That’s the last thought I have before the world goes dark.

  *****

  It’s been three days since the whole Jake affair. I’ve stayed up here in the cabin ever since. Ben’s stayed with me.

  Mike took the fall for Ben on the shooting of the Raider’s outside the cabin that day as well as Jake’s death. Ben told him not to but Mike insisted.

  “When they hear what happened, they can’t call it anything but self-defense,” Mike said. “I’ll get community service at most. Besides, I’ve never been in trouble with the law before.”

  Mike was so insistent that Ben relented. Mike also insisted that I get out of town. Ben backed him up on this.

  The Raiders would wait a while before starting anything again. But these kinds of clubs stay loyal and they have very long memories. Ben and Mike both say I’m not safe here.

  I can’t say I disagree with them. I know I’ve got to leave. And, to tell the truth, I won’t be sorry to put this little town behind me. I only wish I weren’t going alone.

  I asked Ben to come with me. Last night I practically begged him.

  “They’ll be after you as much as me,” I said. “Isn’t it just as dangerous for you to stay here.”

  “The guys’ll take care of me,” he answered referring to The Gators. “Besides, they’re my club. I can’t just up and leave them.”

  “But, you can just up and leave me?” I asked sullenly, glaring at him with my arms crossed.

  “Come on, Ali,” he said, “it’s not like that.”

  “Isn’t it?” I asked.

  He kept insisting that we could do long distance. That we could work it out with him here and me somewhere else. But I know I don’t want to do that.

  If I’m going to leave this town, it’s got to be a clean break. I’ve got to start a new life. And that new life can’t have any baggage.

  All the same, an empty hole seems to whistle through my heart as I pack my things. I know why it’s there. And I know it’ll take a long time to fill.

  I’d thought…I’d hoped that Ben would want to start this new life with me. I’d hoped that we could drive off into the sunset together.

  But, I guess that was stupid of me.

  If I know one thing about bikers, it’s that they’ll choose their Club over everything else. Even over love.

  Maybe it’s time for me to give up the bad boy biker fetish. After all, it hasn’t worked out well for me with either candidate. Maybe bad boys are overrated. Maybe in the next town, I’ll find a nice accountant who won’t cause any trouble.

  Snorting derisively at that idea, I take my small backpack out to the living room. Ben’s sitting on the couch on the phone.

  “Sure, thanks man,” I hear him say before he hangs up. As soon as he does, he turns to me.

  “That was Mike,” he says. “He called to say they can bring your car up here if you like.”

  I shake my head.

  “I’ll get a new one when I get to Santa Fe,” I tell him. I’ve got a bus ticket to Santa Fe, New Mexico in my purse. Somehow, it feels heavier than all the rest of my things combined.

  “How’ll you get to the bus depot?” he asks.

  “I’ll call a Uber,” I tell him.

  “You could do that,” he says slowly. “Or…I could take you.”

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” I tell him.

  “Not even if I get on the bus too?” he asks.

  I stare at him wide eyed for a moment. His mouth suddenly twists up into a grin.

  “I…I thought we talked about this,” I tell him. “You said you didn’t want-”

  “Forget what I said,” he tells me. “I was being an idiot.”

  My heart begins to hammer with joy and the hole in the pit of my stomach begins to fill.

  “Do…do you mean you’d give up the club?” I ask.

  “Not really,” he says. “I’ll still be a Gator. And there’s an affiliate branch in Santa Fe.”

  He walks slowly closer to me. I stand rooted to the spot.

  “Turns out,” he says, “there are dozens of Gators all over the country.”

  He lifts his hand and touches my cheek. Instinctively, I lean into his hand, my gaze never leaving his bright, dark eyes.

  “But, there’s only one Ali,” he says.

  I feel a bright smile work its way to my face. A second later, he’s kissing me. Softly, deeply, passionately.

  I move my arms around his shoulders and press into him. Maybe bad boys aren’t so overrated after all.

  THE END

  Bonus Story 19/40

  Mated to the Vampires

  Allison

  “I can’t believe you’re doing this Ali, you really don’t have to move,” my best friend Rylen pouted and gave me her big blue puppy eyes. I sighed and then went over to give her a big hug.

  “It’s time for a change, it’s something I have to do,” I said and she squeezed me tight before eventually letting go.

  “Alright…I’m coming to visit once you’re settled in okay?” she gave me a pointed look and I laughed.

  “Yes, I want you to come visit. Don’t worry, as soon as I get the guest room set up we’re getting you a ticket,” I told her and she nodded with a heavy sigh.

  “Okay…face time me every day and don’t forget to give Maddy a call too from time to time. He’ll miss you,” Maddy was Rylen’s brother and we had all been friends for a long time. Though Maddy and I had grown apart some when he moved out of the city for work.

  “I’ll keep in touch with everyone, don’t worry Ry. Now I really have to go before I miss my flight,” I told her and she sighed again.

  “Okay… Call me when you land,” she said after hugging me once more. I grabbed the handle of my carry on and then finally took my first steps towards a new life. I was moving to Old Town, Maine from Jersey City. Yeah it was a big change, but I wanted the change, I felt as if my sanity counted on it. Once I was settled on the plane I got comfortable in my seat and pretty much zoned everything out until the beautiful landscape of Maine was below me. I felt like a little kid with my nose pressed against the window.

  T
he end of fall was probably the wrong time to move all the way to Maine, but I was sure the winters couldn’t be that much worse compared to Jersey. Plus, everything looked so… green.

  Getting off the plane and catching a cab to my new house took a few hours. But once I was standing in the foyer I took a deep breath and felt like I had done the right thing. Thankfully, movers had gotten everything set up for the most part. All I had to do was empty a few boxes in each room and unpack the stuff in my suitcases. I walked leisurely through the house, it was pretty big, but I loved the charm of it. There were four bedrooms, three and a half baths, an updated kitchen with adjoining dining room. Then there was the downstairs living room, sun room, and out back a nice deck. Upstairs there was a family room and surrounding it a couple of bedrooms, the others were on the lower floor. The house was perfect. I could see myself there forever, maybe with a husband eventually and a couple of kids…

  A heavy knock sounded on the door and I wondered who would be visiting me. I hurried down to answer it without checking first and discovered a huge… gorgeous guy standing on the porch.

  “Hello, my name is Blayne,” he said in a deep, friendly voice. He was definitely upwards of six feet and built to go along with it. Though it was chilly—forty degrees—he wore a short-sleeved black shirt and khaki shorts. From the look of his thick, defined arms he definitely worked out a lot.

  “Uh… Hi, I’m Allison,” I smiled at him politely and he merely smirked in return. There was something about his frosty blue eyes, the way they focused on me, that was vaguely unsettling. Otherwise he was gorgeous, he looked like he stepped out of an Armani ad. He had that chiseled jaw and chin, perfect cheekbones, not too high or defined. He had thick lashes around his eyes and a razor straight nose. His eyebrows weren’t too thick or too feminine looking. Also he had that perfect five o’clock shadow accented by curly shoulder length hair that was loose around his shoulders.

  “I live just next door and I saw that someone was moving in, now here you are,” he smiled at me and I chuckled, a bit nervously.

  “Yeah, I uh, I’m coming from new Jersey, so my things got moved in before I did,” I said and he nodded slowly, his eyes looking around over my shoulder.

  “I used to know the couple who lived here before you, they moved south for fairer weather,” he said conversationally and then his eyes locked onto mine… again with that strange unsettling focus. “Anyhow, I just wanted to welcome you into the neighborhood. We are a pretty close knit community here… sometimes people don’t take too kindly to outsiders. But I’m sure you’ll fit in,” he said and took a step back, as if to leave.

  “Wait, what do you mean people don’t take too kindly to outsiders?” I asked him, that was definitely a weird thing of him to say.

  “Like I said… it’s a close knit community,” was all he replied and then with one last wave, he turned around and left. I closed the door and locked it behind him… That was definitely weird. I tried not to let his words bother me, hopefully I wouldn't have trouble with him. I really liked the house and I thought Maine was a beautiful place. Whatever, I wouldn’t let him scare me, that was for sure.

  *****

  Blayne

  “Dammit,” I muttered to myself as I all but ran from Allison’s porch. I had one job and one I was good at. To turn away outsiders, human or otherwise, get them to leave, or run them out of town if I had to. Yet one look at her aquamarine eyes and I couldn’t even deliver my script correctly. Instead of instilling a real caution or fear in her, I probably only made myself seem like a weirdo.

  Then her scent seemed to follow me off of the porch, it was like some mixture of fruit and heat that had my brain misfiring. We usually hardly drank directly from humans anymore, but dammit if I hadn’t had about seven different fantasies of taking her vein right there on the porch. This was a problem, this was definitely a problem… and I needed to get a grip.

  “Blayne!” the familiar voice of my buddy Alec, and also the future leader of our coven, beckoned me from the front door of my house.

  “What are you doing here?” the question came out a lot more brusquely than I had intended and part of me knew it was due to instinct, a territorial urge, because on some baser level he was close to Allison and I wanted her…though I shouldn’t.

  “Whoa, I’m not welcome at your home?” he asked me and I took a deep breath.

  “Sorry, I’m distracted. What’s up?” I asked as I stepped inside after him.

  “Well there’s another house that’s been built in our territory and we think it’s another human moving into town.” Alec sighed and ran his hand through his blond hair, it was always cut short and perfectly combed back on his head.

  “I’m already on that first assignment, can’t Luke handle this one?” I asked, Luke was another fighter of my kind, we were bred to be cunning and stealthy. When the coven wasn’t in times of war, we were utilized to keep the territory clean of unwanted squatters… as we called them.

  “I figured you’d be done dispatching that one already. Isn’t the house right next to here?” Alec walked over to the window in the living room and looked out at Allison’s house.

  “I fell behind. I was supposed to get rid of her stuff before she got here…but—well now things have changed,” I said and Alec looked at me with a quirked eyebrow.

  “It’s a she now?” he asked and I rolled my eyes.

  “Yes the human who moved in next door is a woman. Don’t worry, I just have to scare her enough and she’s gone,” Alec nodded, he didn’t seem at all concerned that I had dropped the ball and was even referring to an outsider as she. Usually we spoke of them in the vaguest terms, not putting any sort of persona to them.

  “Alright then, I’ll go to Luke with the other case. Don’t forget the council meeting tonight,” he said and then disappeared. All vampires now of days had evolved that little sensitivity to the sun out of our genes. Though it did pop up from time to time and it was seen as a disorder. Along with all the heightened natural abilities and senses, we could disperse our cells, dematerialize, and inherently ghost away. It was a faster way to travel and track prey. Though in modern times the most hunting we did was break into blood banks and steal some bags for the added nutrition we needed. Humans would have been surprised though, there were just about as many of us on Earth as humans. Their census was all out of whack, the correct number of humans on Earth was about half of what modern governments thought. Though to keep the peace, we vampires simply blended in and lived intermingled with the humans. Though we had our own underground governments and ways of life.

  As I paced my living room, I kept glancing out the window, wondering what Allison was doing, if she was unpacking or wondering about what I said. If I showed up at her door again she’d probably call the cops or something.

  “Hey Blayne,” Alec materialized in the room not five minutes after he had left. “Luke wants to set a fire in that construction site where the new house is being built. But he needs your help,” Alec said and I gestured to him.

  “Why can’t you help him?”

  “Because I’m lazy, you know this, and my father wants me to shadow him on a meeting with a neighboring coven leader,” Alec answered and I waved him away and nodded.

  “Alright, I’ll meet with Luke,” with that Alec was gone once more. I used the same method of transportation, willing myself apart and away to get to Luke’s home.

  “There you are, I was going to call you, but Alec said something about wanting to waste time…” Luke said and I shook my head and chuckled. Alec enjoyed stressing his father for some unfathomable reason.

  “Alec is a strange one, but when has he not been? So are we committing arson today?” Luke chuckled and rubbed his hands together in anticipation. He was a burly guy with strong masculine features that drew females left and right. But Luke was normally a gentle soul, apart from when he did his job of course.

  “Yes, though it will waste whoever’s money it is. At least I don’t have to g
o about harassing the outsider. I hope I’m not taking you away from your assignment?” he asked me and I shrugged.

  “This one will take a bit of time, but it is nothing to worry over,” I said dismissively and Luke nodded.

  “Alright, so this is what I was thinking. The house is nearly complete and it appears as if the electric systems are being currently installed. We could easily sabotage a bit of wiring, then flip a switch and…” Luke made a blowing up gesture with his hands, his eyes gone wide in youthful excitement and I chuckled.

  “Very well, are there any personnel on the site right now?” I asked him and he shook his head.

  “It’s Sunday, no work has taken place today so we can go right now and get things set up,” he said and gestured me to follow him to the site. It was strange that I could feel a physical pull towards Allison the farther from her that I got.

  *****

  Alec

  “So you’re saying the humans are onto members of your coven because of their sloppiness in stealing from the blood banks in your territory,” I broke the silence that ensued after Victor, the head of our neighboring coven in Newport, gave his speech. He wanted access to our blood banks until suspicions surrounding the ones in his territory died down. “So now you want to use the banks in our territory…” Victor seemed annoyed, but attempted to hide it. He couldn’t afford not to keep things peaceful with my father and I. Our territory and our coven was larger and more powerful than Victor's.

  “Of course we would not step on any toes. If we collaborate on schedules I’m sure we can figure out a system to share for only a matter of a couple months,” Victor said and my father, Orin, shook his head.

  “Pardon my son’s harsh tongue. But you must admit Victor, this plan, even before conception, is not a good one. The runners of your coven seem sloppy and rushed, greedy even. If I allowed you to make runs on the banks here then I’d be putting my own coven in the same situation yours is in,” my father spoke in measured tones and exuded confidence and power. Some would say that I still had much to learn from him. Yeah I was less patient than he, but I was just as smart as he. Victor took a great long sigh and pressed his lips together.